Update:Due to an unfortunate oversight, I had mistakenly left out ACPin's entry to the contest. Thus the poll has been deleted, and reset. You may vote anew. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Update:you can view all photos one by one in a much more user friendly interface via Flickr! Click here to check out the Voidfighter flickr gallery. Many thanks to Lights for setting this up.

Voting poll is now up. Now it is up to you, the reader, to vote on who you think captured the essence of the Voidfighter best. The criteria you should be basing your vote on is how well the model reflects the description:

- roughly half the length of the X-wing, but just as wide
- different kind of cockpit other than the traditional TIE ball
- hull extends from the cockpit like a tail
- curving, widespread wings
- engine under the bulk of the cockpit and tail
- two thrusters embedded in the end of each wing
- torpedo launchers

there you go. LOTS of excellent entries; i thank everyone who entered. it was a delight to see all the different interpretations of what a Voidfighter could be. i encourage everyone to take their time and look through all the entries before voting. Here are your contestants:

*************************************
The following events take place some time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi:

Quote:

Damok pulled back on the control yoke of his X-wing and corkscrewed away from the incoming Imperial fighters.

VOIDFIGHTERS! he groaned.

This raid was turning into more than Damok had expected. Six X-wing squadrons, a couple of Corellian Corvettes and a MonCal cruiser had seemed more than enough to handle an Imperial cargo envoy carrying supplies to Coruscant, but a Star Destroyer lurking just outside the system had made a micro jump into the Rebel assault and unleashed its complement of TIEs. And apparently it had brought along a squadron of Voidfighters as well.

The sudden appearance of Voidfighters in a handful of skirmishes over the past few weeks had meant a quick end for numerous Rebel starfighter pilots. Captain Antille's Rogue Squadron had reported that the stealthy nature of the fighter meant traditional scanning and targetting were compromised, and even veteran pilots were hard-pressed to outmaneuver the nimble craft. Every battle where Voidfighters had been deployed had turned into losses for the Rebellion, and as the casualty list grew larger and larger, the threat of the Voidfighter grew more and more frightening. So it was no surprise to Damok when the adrenaline began pumping through his veins faster than ever.

Damok saw his comm board light up with queries from his Ace squadron pilots. He silenced them and fired off a call to Command. "Shelter One, we've got Voidfighters. Orders?"

"We still need to capture one of the enemy craft," a gravelly voice stated over the comm. "Commander Damok: Ace and Surge squadrons are tasked with bringing in a Voidfighter as intact as possible. All other X-Wing squadrons will occupy the TIEs and will aid you as necessary. Good luck. Ackbar out."

As he spun away from the cover fire of the Alliance command ship, he scanned the area ahead with his sensors and looked out through the canopy. Looks like 8 or 9 of 'em, but it's hard to tell... The scanner display chimed: it had picked up only three or four new enemy targets.

Huh. So the scanner rumor is true. Not only were the scanners fooled by the stealthy Imperial craft, but they were playing tricks with his eyes, too.

Adjusting his course towards the approaching fighters, Damok hit the accelerator. Around his ship, eleven other Rebel pilots copied his move and angled themselves to face the new challenge, and further to port Surge squadron followed suit.

In the next instant, the Voidfighters were on them.

Damok slipped his starfighter between two Voids and fired the quad lasers at his selected target. As he whipped end over end to keep the enemy in his sights, he got a good look at what he was up against.

His target was small, roughly half the length of his own X-wing, but just as wide. The traditional TIE ball cockpit was noticeably missing, and the hull of the ship extended from the cockpit like a tail. Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters. A large engine under the bulk of the cockpit and tail caught his attention, and as Damok rocketed past his target and spun around for another run, he grimaced as it mirrored his move perfectly. Two thrusters embedded in the end of each wing and micro thrusters along either side of the body gave it enhanced maneuverability and response.

Juke up, down, slip to the right. Laser fire everywhere. It appeared to come from lumpy protrusions on either side of the ship, but it was too fast to follow.

When Damok finally got a missile lock, he let fly a proton torpedo. But suddenly his display blinked, and the target vanished. The torpedo, having lost its destination, flew off into the abyss of space.

What the...cloaking? But no... the craft suddenly blipped into his display again, and his eyes barely caught sight of it as it roared over his X-wing, leaving a blistering trail of laser bolts in his hull. Some kind of weird hull coating, he guessed, and after boosting shields to cover the weakened portion of his ship, he twisted his X-wing around to get some revenge.

Damok chased down his opponent, hands dancing over the controls as he fought to take the Voidfighter down. He breathed a sigh of relief as he narrowly dodged a torpedo which had fired from who-knows-where on the enemy fighter. His eyes caught the heads-up display and latched onto an incoming friendly ship. Baring his teeth, he fired off two torpedos and unleashed a hail of blasterfire at the Voidfighter. One of the torpedos slipped past it as it shimered out of view again, and as the Void dodged the second, another pair of torpedos flared out of nowhere and detonated against the engines, encasing it in a roiling fireball. Flying through the debris cloud came Ace Six, who cheered and thanked Damok for the assist.

Grunting in disgust that they had broken the orders to bring in the Void intact, he quickly searched for another on his screen. But Ace and Surge squadrons seemed to have gotten a couple and chased most of the others back to the Star Destroyer, which was fleeing the battlefield. The other X-wing units had made short work of the TIEs.

Damok's mood began to brighten when he heard a jubilant call over the comm. "We got one! All squadrons: report to assigned docking bays for immediate jump to hyperspace. Mission accomplished!"

Thrilled, Damok spun his snubfighter back towards the MonCal cruiser and could just make out the dark shape of a Voidfighter being dragged into a secure hangar bay by multiple tractor beams. Amazed that anyone could get a lock on one of the swift and stealthy craft, he prepared to land aboard the command ship for the jump.

*****

As it turned out, only two of the twelve Voidfighters had been destroyed in the battle, as compared to the eleven lost from Ace and Surge squadrons combined.

Sure, we got the Voidfighter, but was this a loss or a victory for the Rebellion?

Damok looked down over the catwalk with a few of the surviving Ace pilots. In the secure hangar bay below them, engineers, droids, and tech analysts were poring over the captured Voidfighter, which sat quiet on the deck perched on its two landing gears. After forcibly blowing the canopy when the pilot had refused to come out, troops had wrestled him to the detention level for interrogation.

He watched as technicians climbed a ladder onto the wing and poked through the cockpit. Droids tapped into its systems. One of the techs donned the unusual helmet the pilot had worn and sat down in the pilot's chair, running his hands over sleek and spacious cockpit interior. Damok couldn't see any controls from here, but noticed that the tech in the cockpit had excitedly begun sliding his hands around the controls after fiddling with the back of the helmet, which now appeared to be jacked into the seat. Some kind of neural interface? Damok wondered.

Without warning, the dark metal hull of the Voidfighter shimmered and faded to black. It appeared to swallow all light as it sat there on the deck, and Damok understood now why it had been so hard to spot these guys out there in the inky black of space. He knew of no technology that could render a ship's hull such an infinite shade of black on command, but he knew instantly that he didn't like the Imperials having it. He watched on as a small army of mechanics and Alliance Intelligence agents crawled over every inch of the craft, and inside Damok knew they would find a way to stop the Empire's terrible new starfighters.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build the Voidfighter. Using only official, real life, LEGO elements, build your interpretation of what the Voidfighter looks like in minifig scale. Should your model win the favor of your peers, you will be rewarded handsomely with an Ultimate Space Battle Set. One entry per person. Contest is open to anyone in the world. Post one photo no more than 320x240 in your post, then link to your gallery.

Side objective: build the voidfighter in stealth mode, and you will also receive a MINI Jedi Starfighter.

You have until November 30 to complete this mission. Your peers will examine your work December 1 through December 7. In the unlikely event of a tie, my vote will be the tie breaker. Good luck, and may the bricks be with you._________________flickr

Last edited by onions on Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:21 am; edited 12 times in total

Joined: 07 Feb 2005Location: What a strange place to find a Jedi master...

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:16 am Post subject:

Bravo! Terrific backstory, and a very exciting contest. Count me in.

I do have one concern, and that is the description of the ship that you included in the story. Are we required to hold to that description? I feel it may limit some peoples' creativity, since so much of the ship has already been described._________________MOCpages gallery
We all make choices. But in the end... our choices make us.

I do have one concern, and that is the description of the ship that you included in the story. Are we required to hold to that description? I feel it may limit some peoples' creativity, since so much of the ship has already been described.

I do have one concern, and that is the description of the ship that you included in the story. Are we required to hold to that description? I feel it may limit some peoples' creativity, since so much of the ship has already been described.

But that's the challenge! Ace provides hints and clues as to what he thinks it should look like, and you gotta hold to that design as much as possible. Makes for a more fun and challenging contest, since you need to really read and pay attention to what you need to include in your version.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he narrowly dodged a torpedo which had fired from who-knows-where on the enemy fighter.

See? You can still take some liberties of your own whilst creating this evil starfighter. Just make sure you still take into account the other clues you've been given._________________Flickr <•> Big C's Blog

to enter do you have to have an fbtb gallery_________________And I will strike thee down with great vengance
and furious anger.
And you will know that my name is the Bean, when I lay my vengance upon thee.

No; you can use brickshelf.._________________FBTB Brawl Tournament 2008! Sign up today in the Video Games Thread or PM me with subject line "FBTB Brawl Tourney Competitor"!
Brawl friend code: 4167-4177-6901

I do have one concern, and that is the description of the ship that you included in the story. Are we required to hold to that description? I feel it may limit some peoples' creativity, since so much of the ship has already been described.

But that's the challenge! Ace provides hints and clues as to what he thinks it should look like, and you gotta hold to that design as much as possible. Makes for a more fun and challenging contest, since you need to really read and pay attention to what you need to include in your version.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he narrowly dodged a torpedo which had fired from who-knows-where on the enemy fighter.

See? You can still take some liberties of your own whilst creating this evil starfighter. Just make sure you still take into account the other clues you've been given.

That's all fine and well,

But Onions wrote:

Your peers will examine your work December 1 through December 7.

So how much do we want to trust Joe Q. Forumdweller to remain within the spirit of the rules when voting? I'd be willing to bet that a ship that looks great because it's contrary to the established features will get more votes than a ship that's merely good because the builder stayed within the parameters. I'm not saying that somebody won't come up with a great ship using the described features, just raising what I think is a distinct possibility of the end result here. _________________My BrickLink store

His target was small, roughly half the length of his own X-wing, but just as wide. The traditional TIE ball cockpit was noticeably missing, and the hull of the ship extended from the cockpit like a tail. Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters. A large engine under the bulk of the cockpit and tail caught his attention, and as Damok rocketed past his target and spun around for another run, he grimaced as it mirrored his move perfectly. Two thrusters embedded in the end of each wing and micro thrusters along either side of the body gave it enhanced maneuverability and response.

Sounds like a cylon raider to me... perhaps the rebel squadron happened upon a cylon base star? :http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ships/ships/ Particularily the "Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters" description...

Nice contest though I had to post this so no one would try to steal cylon idea, I gotta enter..._________________a.k.a: Bobalego.
Brickstarblog

I do have one concern, and that is the description of the ship that you included in the story. Are we required to hold to that description? I feel it may limit some peoples' creativity, since so much of the ship has already been described.

Has that much of it really been described? I don't think the description is nearly as limiting as some people are making it out to be. I think the possibilities for this thing are pretty wide open, and the only restraints are the ones builders put on themselves mentally. Everyone should ask themselves a few questions when they set to working on this thing:

Okay, it's roughly half the length of an X-wing and just as wide... but how tall is it compared to an X-wing?
Where do the torpedos fire from?
Where do the laser blasts shoot from?
What canopy should be used for the cockpit? (the only one we've been told we can't use is a TIE windshield!)
If I don't build in "stealth mode," what color should I build it in?
How many wings does it have? (the story doesn't say!)

Daredevil wrote:

Hey this sounds great idea ace i'm entering but a few litle questions.
what colour does it have to be?
its an empire fighter right?
and how wide is a x wing?
Thanks DD

Its stealth mode is described as black, so regular mode can be whatever other color you want, I would say. I'll probably be doing a dark grey version.
I think you need to reread the story to see whather it's a fighter for the Empire. The story couldn't be any clearer on that point.
Re: X-wing's width- I say just picture an X-wing in your mind and build however big you think it needs to be. No one's going to say "HEY! Your voidfighter isnt as wide as the original X-wing!!1!" or "Hey, the ship needs to be as wide as the Dagobah X-wing!" It's up to you.

brickscout wrote:

Cool contest idea but I think:
Sounds like a cylon raider to me... perhaps the rebel squadron happened upon a cylon base star? :http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ships/ships/ Particularily the "Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters" description...
Nice contest though I had to post this so no one would try to steal cylon idea, I gotta enter...

Light's...
have you seen a cylon raider from the link I posted? I think "Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters" could easily describe a cylon raiders wings. Maybe not so widespread but anyway...the engine is in the center underneath the cockpit and it has a tail albeit a small one but it is there...no imagination necessary to compare the similarities...we even can barely see where the cylon raiders ordinance comes from when launched._________________a.k.a: Bobalego.
Brickstarblog

Light's...
have you seen a cylon raider from the link I posted? I think "Curving, widespread wings were a stark comparison to the overly large solar panels of the TIE fighters" could easily describe a cylon raiders wings. Maybe not so widespread but anyway...the engine is in the center underneath the cockpit and it has a tail albeit a small one but it is there...no imagination necessary to compare the similarities...we even can barely see where the cylon raiders ordinance comes from when launched.

Yes, I clicked and perused that site, and I am very familiar with Cylons past, present, and otherwise.

I get the feeling that you think I'm correcting you or something, but you're absolutely right, the Voidfighter description could be interpreted as a that of the current Cylon Raider. I never said otherwise, I wasn't telling you you were wrong. Just that you've thought of one possible design. So far, you're the first person to reference the Cylon... meaning as far as I can tell almost everyone else is thinking of their own designs.

As for me? I don't imagine the Voidfighter anything like a Cylon. Maybe you'll understand that when you see my entry, or anyone else's entries.

All I'm saying is that I don't think someone sat back and said "I'm going to write about the Cylon Raider and pass it off as a Star Wars ship." Which is what it seems like you're suggesting, which would be highly presumptuous and accusatory, which is dumb considering we're talking about a Star Wars Lego contest featuring an awesome free prize.

Sorry, Lights, It's hard to know what someone's feelings are behind their statements. When you said:

Quote:

If it sounds like a Cylon design to you, then that's your imagination at work.

It sounded like a judgment to me, but I realize you didn't mean it that way, just like, my love of Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars similarities may have come across as me accusing plagiarism. Not my intention. I have entered 2 of the contests so far, love them all and the inspiration they create...if you go to my last posting in the "Adv. Alt AT-AT..." contest you can understand my love for these contests, and I was a judge for the Slave III contest. I did not mean any disrespect.

On a different note... I love your Cylon Raiders!!! I see you know a lot about Battle Star, they are fantastic!!! Have to search to see if you made any Vipers...sorry I got of topic so much. _________________a.k.a: Bobalego.
Brickstarblog

dont have one of them either can I post a link to my freewebs gallery and add it to that?_________________And I will strike thee down with great vengance
and furious anger.
And you will know that my name is the Bean, when I lay my vengance upon thee.